


Come Home, Jack

by Ruolumen



Category: Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Dark Jack, Gen, Redemption
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-12-07
Updated: 2014-02-02
Packaged: 2017-11-20 14:06:34
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,162
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/586185
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ruolumen/pseuds/Ruolumen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jack did not make it through three hundred years smiling and happy.  Instead, the bitterness of the first few years overtakes him.  If the Guardians want his help against Pitch, they are going to have to help him heal after centuries of neglect and pain.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> This is not going to be a happy story in the beginning, or probably quite a bit of the way through. It's a redemption story of Jack Frost, after the pain of being neglected breaks him. I hope you enjoy it!

Jack could not believe how much fun it was to create frost. He looked down on his first creation from the tree branch he had caught himself on and smiled, his heart light. Looking around for more places to spread his shining frost, he spotted lights in the distance. Curiosity piqued his interest and he tested his abilities with the wind, allowing it to lift him away from the trees and towards the lights. 

Landing, Jack looked around, taking in the smiling faces, the children laughing and playing and he wanted to be a part of it.

“Hello,” he said to a woman walking past. She did not even look up at the sound of his voice. Was she intentionally ignoring him? He turned and tried again, with the same non-reaction. Did they know him? Were they purposely ignoring him? What could he have done to deserve this? He could not remember anything, no matter what he tried. Instead of dwelling on it, he tried again, with the same reaction.

Perhaps this was a game? A prank? He did enjoy those. With a smile he crouched down to a child running in his direction and began to ask where he was and what was going on when the child ran straight into... and through him?

Jack gasped an stood. What had just happened? Then it happened again, he turned to see who it was, and it happened again, people kept phasing through him as if he was not even there. How was that possible? He was there, he knew he was. He had to be.

But they were not seeing him, not feeling him. He had to get out of there.

Just thinking of leaving got the wind rustling under him, and Jack took the opportunity to leave.

Every village he visited over the next few years reacted the same. No matter how hard he tried to keep smiling, to keep having fun, no one saw him, no one knew him. All he could do was decorate with his frost and staff.

As the years wore on Jack gave up trying. He stopped wanting to be seen, stopped writing on frosted windows, stopped bringing joy through winter, stopped laughing, stopped smiling, stopped having fun. The bitterness, the anger, the rejection took over. Jack had a job to do, he had to spread winter, he did not have to enjoy it, he did not have to allow anyone else to enjoy it, and when Winter was no longer needed he made a home for himself at the South Pole, as far from civilization as he could get.

There he stayed through the warmer months, in his home, alone, where no one could find him. And when he did go out to spread the cold he made it as cold, as miserable for the world as he could.

Three hundred years passed like this, with Jack alone, uncared for, unseen, unwanted, before anything finally changed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, this is short, very short, and yes the chapters will be longer, but this is a prologue, and vague intentionally. I hope you enjoy it.


	2. Chapter 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Man in the Moon sends the Guardians out to find the newest member of their team, much to their mutual chagrin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the wait all. Between work and school, and studying, I have very little time for writing. I will try to get it together faster and get the chapters out quickly but I can't make any promises. Anyway, hope you like this one, and I'll try to make them longer in the future, this just seemed like a good place to stop. Forgive me for the cliffie!

Nicholas St. North, E. Aster Bunnymund, Toothiana and Sandman all stared at the glowing image before them, in varying stages of shock. Of all of the mythical creatures Man in the Moon could suggest to help battle Pitch, he had chosen Jack Frost.

“Oh sure, ‘cause that makes sense,” Bunny groaned, fearing the image of Jack Frost illuminated by moon glow would be etched in his nightmares for years to come. Pitch could do that, he was sure, and would if Jack Frost was the only person Man in Moon could come up with to help them. They did not need help anyway.

“This cannot be right.” North stared at the circling image of the boy in the hooded sweatshirt, before turning his attention up towards the moon. “My friend, are you positive you have shown us this correctly? Surely Jack Frost cannot be the one to help us defeat Pitch.”

“Yeah, Mate.” Bunnymund looked up into the night sky as well. “Jack Frost’s nothing but a spoiled, miserable child that enjoys making everyone, even us, miserable with him.”

“Jack Frost,” Toothiana swooned, not even noticing her friend’s reactions. She knew what he could do, what he had done, but Tooth lived and breathed teeth, and Jack’s were legendary.

Sandy remained silent. No images swirled above his head, though his eyes clearly swam with thoughts.

North and Bunny were still looking up at the moon, hoping for an answer from their friend and guide above them, when the glow faded and the gem disappeared back into the floor. His answer was clear, his choice final.

The four guardians looked around between each other now, unsure how to proceed.

Looking between his friends, North decided he would have to be the one to break the silence. “Man in Moon has spoken,” he announced, his voice strong. He would see this through, for the Man in the Moon if for no other reason.

Sandy looked at him, landscapes forming and dissolving over his head, and North turned speculative again.

“I do not know where he is, Sandy,” North answered him, though he was thinking as he spoke.

“The Spirit of Winter would be somewhere cold, don’t you think?” Bunny asked, his voice as cold as the places he suggested.

“He is not at the North Pole,” North told them, ruling that idea out, “I would know if he were.”

“The South Pole?” Toothiana asked, looking hopeful.

“You are strange, you know that, right?” Bunny asked her, his tone incredulous.

“Bunny, it is not wrong for her to want to help us do what we must,” North soothed.

Bunnymund rolled his eyes.

“I am inclined to agree with Tooth,” North went on, “however the South Pole is not small. Finding Jack could take longer than we have.”

“Then I say we give up on him. We can handle Pitch by ourselves; no one needs that annoying little whacker anyway.”

Before North could say anything else Sandy moved between them, a translucent orb formed above him. North grinned.

“Brilliant Sandy!” he shouted, pulling a snow globe from his jacket pocket and tossing it in the air before him gleefully. “Let us find Jack Frost!”

 

Jack’s wards, wards he had set up two centuries ago, alerted him that visitors were close at hand.

It piqued his interest as he looked through the veil he had made for himself in the snowy wasteland. He was still learning to make himself a better home, use his constantly growing abilities to expand upon what he already knew how to do. For now, however, what he had suited his needs.

Jack was well hidden from the outside world, but he could see around his home. What he saw outside made his blood boil. What were they doing here? What could the guardians possibly want with him after all this time?

While tempted to leave and be left alone in the process, Jack instead moved to his chair in the middle of his Grand Hall, waiting for his guests. He would not be kicked out of his own home.

 

Even with North’s superior knowledge of snow bound land Jack’s home had been tricky to find. The mansion was a part of everything here, the twirling snow, the mounds of ice, all hiding the pillars within.

Once North finally did see it, however, they found their way within with relative ease. Toothiana admired the splendor of the things Jack had made as they walked past: the ice sculpted flower gardens, the intricate detailing on the walls.

“For such a miserable fellow he sure surrounds himself with beautiful things,” she said, smiling at Bunnymund, who looked angrier the further they walked.

“Something outta be,” a new voice, a child’s voice, echoed through the halls. It bounced off the walls with no discernible point of origin; at least, no point of origin that could be heard by any being with a normal sense of hearing.

“It came from this way,” Bunnymund announced, moving in the direction he had heard the voice come from. His companions followed him without hesitation.

 

Jack sat crouched on his staff, beside his self-made throne, as he waited for his unwanted guests. Whatever they had come for, he would tell them no, and get them to leave him alone once and for all.


	3. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Guardians try to state their case.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry, after all of the procrastinating, and everything else, I procrastinated more and did not even meet the deadline I made for myself. I really hope this chapter is up to all of your standards, I'm not sure it's up to mine, but I have struggled with how this chapter should go for ages.
> 
> I have a vast number of other things to write, not the least of which is an actual novel I would like to get published some day, but I do promise not to make you wait another year for a new chapter, I will try to update this as soon as possible.
> 
> Anyway, no more excuses, please enjoy the long awaited Chapter 2!

Jack knew his home as only the one who built it could, and he had built it with magic. That was how he knew the whereabouts of his unwanted visitors within his walls. As he waited Jack wondered what they would think of his great hall. It was long, Jack had not seen any longer in his three hundred years of traveling the world. Stretching down the middle of the room was a carved path leading from the entryway to the dais upon which his throne sat and lining the path, giving it a wide berth, were bare trees crafted of ice, reaching high but not nearly closing in on the ceiling.

His thoughts cleared as he heard footsteps nearing his location. When the four entered the room he was not disappointed, the room did seem to awe them, though it lasted only a moment before all of their eyes turned towards him.

“Found ‘im,” the rabbit, the one Jack knew to be called Bunnymund, muttered, even though he knew no one would respond.

Looking between each of their faces, Jack knew this would not be pleasant.

Nicholas St. North stepped forward, a large smile spread across his face, as he prepared to break the silence that had fallen between them after Bunny spoke. “Jack Frost, we come to you-“

“Go home,” Jack interrupted him, his tone dead serious.

Apparently North was not so easily deterred, though his grin faltered some for a moment, before he made it as strong as it had been before. “We come to you bearing good news.”

Perhaps they expected the man’s joy to be infectious, perhaps they thought Jack would be happy and fun despite everything they knew of him, or perhaps they were just fools full of unheeded hope, but when Jack did not even twitch at the news, they all stopped, looking between each other confused.

All of them except one, that is. Sanderson Mansnoozie, the Sandman, watched Jack with calm eyes. When Bunny began to speak again, telling the others that he knew this had been a bad idea, Sandy took hold of his wrist gently, shaking his head.

That got the attention of both North and Toothiana. Toothiana, who up to this point had only held off from inspecting Jack’s teeth due to the look on his face, knew that Sandy had the right of it. North, however, looked intently at Sandy as images swirled above his head.

As always North interpreted everything Sandy was insinuating. “Intruders?” he barked in disbelief. “We do not intrude on Jack, we come to tell him he is to be guardian!”

Sandy shook his head and looked as though he wanted to groan, before glancing at Jack worriedly.

“A… a guardian?” Jack sputtered, shock written across his face before quickly fading to anger. “I want you all to leave. Now.”

“This is good news, Jack,” Toothiana told him, looking both taken aback and heartbroken at the same time as he shut down.  
Her look had no more effect than North’s joy on the boy as he stared at them, his look scathing.

“I don’t want your good news.”

“Everyone can use good news,” she encouraged, stepping closer to him only to see his eyes narrow.

“Not me.”

“Of course, forget it mates, he won’t come with us,” Bunny snapped, glaring at Jack.

“What he said,” the white haired boy muttered, before allowing the wind to take him to the ground. He grabbed his staff and looked at them all for a moment, before turning to walk out of the room through a door behind the throne.

“Jack, wait!” Toothiana called after him, moving to follow before a hand rested on her arm. Sandy was there, keeping her from chasing after Jack with a sad look and another shake of his head.

“That did not go well,” North sighed, looking towards the back of the room where Jack had gone.

“Oh, you think?” Bunny asked sarcastically.

“Your tone is not needed, friend.” North turned towards Bunny, giving him a look that only slightly made the Pooka feel the need to apologize.

“Did you expect something different?”

“I did,” Tooth said. “I wanted him to be happy, to join us.”

“You wanted to look at his teeth.”

“Peace, Bunny,” North attempted to soothe his companions. “I believe none of us expected such a reaction.”

Before anything else could be said, Sandy nudged North and nodded his head towards the door they had come through.

“Sandy is right, this is not the place to talk. We must make new plan.”

That seemed to be all of the encouragement they needed to retreat, though they knew they could not give up so easily.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bunny is not thinking like the rest of them, it's true, he could care less if they tried a second time, but that's for later.

**Author's Note:**

> I have not entirely decided how the story will go, but I will try to update it as fast as possible. If anyone has ideas or anything, drop me a line.
> 
> Yes, this is short, very short, and yes the chapters will be longer, but this is a prologue, and vague intentionally. I hope you enjoy it, hopefully chapter 2 will be out before next weekend.
> 
> The title is a working title, but does not refer to a physical place, merely a state of mind.
> 
> Anything that changes (relationships, characters, etc.) will be added as I go along.


End file.
